I feel that I've SEEN something about our present situation and its implications for who should be president next. Now I'm going to begin articulating what I have seen.
My plan is to present this as a series of brief essays, under the overall title of "It's Got to Be Gore." When I have published the whole sequence of parts --maybe four or five in number, methinks-- I plan on then publishing the whole as a single essay.
If you think that the ideas developed in this "It's Got to Be Gore" series are valid and important, I hope you will do what you can to get this series and/or the summation essay to Al Gore himself. Please think about the various connections you have and whether any of them might be enlisted to participate in a "six degrees of separation" to move these ideas onward closer to Gore's inner circle and thus to Gore himself.
If we could reach Kevin Bacon in this way, surely it should be possible for the people convened here to advance these writings and their ideas to Gore via a whole panoply of routes.
But first, let me lay out what I've seen. I will begin in this installment by laying out what I believe is the extraordinary and vitally important challenge that America needs for its next leadership to be able to meet.
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These have not been normal times in America. Under this Bushite regime, the soul of our country has been in danger like never before in its history.
Accordingly, in the now-beginning quest for new leadership here in America, the stakes are equally extraordinary. America must be reclaimed from these evil forces. The American people need to understand the meaning of this dark episode we've been passing through. And the damage inflicted on this country, and on the world, by these dark forces must be repaired.
America needs for the next president:

** To bring the best possible resolution of the mess the Bushites have created in Iraq.
** To refortify the Constitution which has been under assault from these Bushites-getting rid of unconstitutional laws, like the Military Commissions Act, and re-establishing a reasonable agreement about the checks and balances that establish the boundaries of the separation of powers.
** To reverse the corporate takeover of the federal government of the United States-- a takeover which this Bushite regime advanced by a whole order of magnitude.
** To reconfirm America's commitment to a respect for genuine knowledge, affirming our respect for the ferreting out of the truth through honest inquiry.
** To make the United States a leader, and not a pariah as this administration has made it, in the global process of creating an environmentally sustainable civilization, on that does not create destructive upheavals --such as climate change-- that shake the foundations of the biosphere.
** To rededicate ourselves to the value of honesty in the relationship between leaders and led, recognizing how fundamental has been the betrayal of American democracy by this group of Bushite leaders who have worked assiduously to deceive the people and have embraced no commitment to an honest mutuality between government and people.
** To bring Americans of good will together, rather than work deliberately to drive them apart, as these Bushites continuously have.
**To make America trusted and appreciated by other countries in the world, and not held as these Bushites are with a combination of contempt and fear.

All these things are aspects of America that have been materially damaged. And America can waste no time in undertaking to repair this damage.
We are therefore coming to one of those moments --of which America has had perhaps only three or four before-- when presidential leadership can make a profound difference with repurcussions, for better or for worse, for generations to come.
In the next installment of this series, I will indicate some of my reasons for believing that the alternatives to Gore are less promising for this historical moment, and will mostly focus on those alternatives. In the installment after that, I will focus more on the reasons Gore appears to me to be the man for this moment. And in the fourth projected installment, I will indicate how Gore could begin campaigning with a platform and a strategy which will not only help propell him into the presidency but will also provide America with more of the leadership it so desperately needs NOW and for the next two years.

Andy Schmookler, an award-winning author, political commentator, radio talk-show host, and teacher, was the Democratic nominee for Congress from Virginia's 6th District. His new book -- written to have an impact on the central political battle of our time -- is (more...)